Warbird Information Exchange

Hi everyone,

I managed to make my way to the Abbotsford International Air Show this past weekend. This air show isn't known for attracting many warbirds, but this year was pretty good compared to other years. Also, getting closer shots of the warbirds is difficult at this airshow because of the layout. They could do a lot better job of it, that's for sure.

Below are a pictures of a few of the planes that attended. I apologize for the poor quality of some of the images. My camera is getting on in years.

An old Stearman. It was in fantastic condition from what I could tell.


Miss Mitchell. She was looking good!


A very nice looking Hawker Sea Fury. She sure sounds good!


Supermarine Spitfire Mk. IX... (Replica) actually a Jurca 100% scale wooden replica


F7F Tigercat that apparently was recently out of the shop in Victoria, BC. Note the Mustang behind it. I couldn't get a decent shot of it at all. It came from the Aviation Museum in Bellingham, as did 2 T-6's.


A deHavilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk in British colours.


A blurry shot of the warbirds in flight.


F-117. Not a warbird yet, but really soon apparently.


the B-52. Jeez, when is it going to retire? I guess as soon as carpet bombing goes out of fashion. By the way, what are the two bulb lookin' things under the nose of it? Cameras?


Cool nose are on the B-52.


Canada's newest TOY! The C-17, or I guess we're calling them the CC-177.


Cheers,

David

"the B-52. Jeez, when is it going to retire? I guess as soon as carpet bombing goes out of fashion. By the way, what are the two bulb lookin' things under the nose of it? Cameras?"

retirement is in 2040 or so, depends on how many hours are on the jet. The limiting factor is the skin on the top of the wing, which will fail around 30,000 hours, right now most have around 16,000 hours so.

The two bulbs under the nose are indeed cameras, the left one in the picture is a FLIR (forward looking infared) and the right one is a low light telivision camera. They used to be for low level terrain following but now we use them for finding fixpoints and targets.

Do you have any more photos and info on the Spitfire Mk IX replica. The 3 blade prop is not right for a IX and the engine compartment looks a little small, but the wing, tail area, tailwheel, radiators look so authenic. Who was flying it. A long time ago I flew in the show there. One highlight was my sponsor, Players cigarettes had a tent with delicious catered food for us and their vip guests. They did not mind that I don't smoke. They had fresh strawberries dipped in chocolate. I ate about 2 dozen! Bud Granley had invited me. He flew my plane one day with the Hurricane and Lancaster with an all Canadian crew in each plane. Ever hear of that many Canucks sober at one time? One of the vets had flown the Dam buster raid, and I have his autograph. I also took Al Lang, who had flown Spits in the Battle of Britain, for a flight. He was pretty old, had a pacemaker and hip replacement, and once in the plane he was like 20 years old again. He and the moment were magic. Old friend Karl Kasguard was also there. Those Canadians really seem to love Spits and their history.

_________________
Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK

This airplane was built in Prescott, AZ by Bob DeFord. It is an all wood Jurca design as Mike stated, Allison powered and swinging (I think) a cut down DC-3 prop. Abottsford seems like a long ways from home which makes me wonder if Mr. DeFord has parted ways with the airplane. I've seen it numerous times at airshows here in Arizona and it is a real credit to the builder's abilities.

That is my old buddy and fellow wing member Ellsworth Getchell and his Bristol Centaurus powered Sea Fury. Getch maintains the aircraft himself and that is no easy task. It requires about 25-30 hours of work for every one flying.

Dan

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Both the Tigercat and Mustang parked behind it are owned by John Sessions, based at Paine Field. "Val-halla", the Mustang owned by the Heritage Flight Museum in Bellingham is not shown. And that Spit is one gorgeous home-built, even sounds like the real thing.

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"They can teach MONKEYS to fly better than that"

http://www.heritageflight.org
http://www.bravo369.org

Hey Bill,

I'm glad you had a good experience at the Abbotsford Airshow that you attended. What would it take to convince you to come again sometime?

It looks like I was beat to the punch regarding the answers about the Spitfire replica. It is indeed powered by an Allison engine, and yes, I thought the three blade prop didn't look quite right for that mark as well. It did look quite authentic otherwise. I'm sorry, but I don't have any more pictures of the Spit. Like I mentioned before, the Abbotsford Airshow is not the best place for taking pictures of airplanes.

Cheers,

David

Actually the fuselage is steel tube with aluminum sheet covering.

Whoops, I knew that too! The original Jurca design is all wood but Mr. DeFord made the change to steel tube for his fuselage. More pics of the DeFord Spit replica can be found on the Jurca web site, including some construction pics.

http://www.marcel-jurca.com/index.php?o ... &Itemid=60